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Published: January 2nd 2008
Local market
Sarah and Fi strike a pose..Well the jungle…what can i say?? I think firstly the most important thing...I am now known as Queen of the Pirahnas. Yep! Crowned by our jungle leader himself. Let me explain….
We went pirahna fishing in the Amazon Jungle (how cool does that sound!?). And I, Queen of the Pirahnas…or the Pirahna Queen if you prefer, caught the most pirahnas AND the biggest!!! Yep! Ben only caught one…but i caught 6 and i caught the biggest!! Did i mention that already? (insert your own gleeful little cackle here). Our jungle leader Ráphael (a.k.a Shrek) was most impressed…and seemed to be quite upset that we couldnt take them home with us, but alas we were fishing, quite illegally, in a nature reserve so we had to throw them back…and we couldn't mention anything to do with fishing in front of the owner of the lodge. Fun!
Anyway…back to the beginning. The whole group did not go to the jungle, it was just myself, Ben, Fi and Dave who got up early the morning after finishing the Inca Trail (that was a joy i tell you) to catch a flight to Puerto Maldonada, which is the gateway to the Amazon Jungle
Boat ride to Lodge
Locals mining for gold in the river.. there is a big gold trade here in Peru. The first thing to hit us was the heat…it was stifling!!! After grabbing our bags we started looking for our local guide…and there he was…bobbing up and down outside the airport with a big sign with Ben's name on it…made sure we got a picture, Ben felt very special. Although Fi was most upset that her name was not on the sign…she had been looking forward to it for the last few days….
We stopped off at a market on the way to the office, to sample some local goods. Was pretty amazing the range of bananas they have. We were very impressed. And an important note for everyone out there…Brazil nuts. These are in fact not Brazil nuts, they are Amazonia nuts. They are found in all of Amazonia and not just Brazil…Shrek was very offended when we called them Brazil nuts, so i now pass this very important bit of information onto you. Moving on.
We picked up the owner of the lodge from the office before taking a VERY bumpy road to a small jetty to catch our boat to the lodge. It was a two and a half hour trip and was
Boat ride to Lodge
relaxing with a drink.. very relaxing. Just what we needed after the hell that was the Inca Trail!
The lodge was gorgeous, and in an absolutely beautiful setting. We had the entire thing to ourselves…a place that can sleep 50 people…and a staff of about 7 waiting on us! Lovely! We felt like royalty! Well….that was until we went on our little night jaunt through the jungle to spot bugs and stuff. Here we were walking into the jungle, when Shrek calmly mentions that if we feel anything flying close to our heads, not to worry…they are just bats!!! Hmmm….wasn´t feeling quite so into the walk after that. But on we went! We did see bugs…cool. We also heard lots of animals. Great. But bats. Ben was the first to feel their wings flutter past his face. We all realised this when we heard a (very manly) scream coming from the back of the group. We spun around and Ben was racing towards us, his arms flying wildly around his head. Bat said Shrek, then continued walking. Everyone but Fi got a taste of the bats before we finished. I tell you….by the time we got back to the lodge we were all
Cayman Lodge
this is the life.. so freaked out, the sweat was pouring from our bodies and nervous giggling could be heard every few minutes…this wasn´t helped by the fact that Shrek made us turn off our torches and try and follow the sound of him in the pitch black that is the jungle at night. We all thought he was going to leave us stranded as some great joke or were imagining some scene from a horror movie where he lops off our heads with his machete! He did have one by the way “just in case”. Shrek did tell us later that he found our antics amusing…he just loves taking tourists into the jungle.
Well the next day we did a lovely hike through the jungle to Sachavacayoc Lake where we went fishing. Along the way we heard woodpeckers, toucans, hummingbirds, macaws…but we didn´t actually see any. Also smelt and saw traces for wild boar, but couldn´t find them. Didn´t see a lot of animals really…except howler monkies…and the tarántula!! That was pretty cool. Biggest spider i have ever seen…although not as big as they get! Shrek coaxed her our of her hole and was trying to catch her as Fi and I
Bedtime
yep I am in here had accepted the challenge to let her crawl on us. Unfortunately (sigh) she kept running back into her hole before he could grab her so we couldn't complete the challenge. The boys challenge was to jump into the lake for a swim…where the pirahnas, caymans and anacondas live. Unfortunately (again), we got caught in a downpour so it wasn't really swimming weather.
After getting back to the lodge soaked to the bone we had ourselves a lovely dinner and a nice early night, before getting up early the next morning to take our boat and bumpy car ride back to the airport to catch our plane back to Cusco.
Well, that was our jungle adventure!! A final thought….even though the jungle seems to be a place where women rule….the female tarántulas eat the men when they are finished with them, girls catch more pirahnas than boys (Fi was the princess as she caught the most after me)…I don't think I am really a natural jungle queen….too scary.
Lots of love to you all
Sarah (a.k.a The Pirahna Queen) and Ben
xx
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